Wearied by war, Americans paused Wednesday to listen to President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq, responding with frustration, puzzlement and, in some cases, cautious hope.

People at an electronics store in Maryland watch US President George W. Bush give a televised address on his new plan for the war in Iraq. Bush ordered more than 20,000 more troops into Iraq, as he admitted to mistakes there and warned Iraqi leaders they would lose US support if they failed to quell the violence. [AFP]

In a prime-time address to the nation, the president said he would boost the US presence in Iraq to more than 150,000 troops, steeled the country for more violence and said he had made a mistake by not ordering more troops there last year.

At a diner called Miss Katie's in downtown Milwaukee, office manager Dave Berndt said Bush seemed to be "apologizing for what's going on so far, and almost apologizing in advance for what's going on afterwards."

Nearby, bartender Joe Sardino was more blunt: "I think this is a Band-Aid on a large wound."

Going head-to-head with Democrats who have called for an end to the war, Bush said an American pullback now would shatter the Iraqi government and lead to "mass killings on an unimaginable scale."

Still, the president was speaking to a nation that has in large part soured on the war, which this spring will enter its fifth year and which last month cost its 3,000th American life.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll in December put approval of Bush's handling of the war at 27 percent, a record low, and a majority of voters interviewed in exit polls during the midterm elections said they favored pulling some or all troops from Iraq.

Even among Americans who applauded Bush's decision to bolster the American military presence in Iraq, there were questions about why the reinforcements were only being sent now.

"I'd love to know what took him so long to come to this realization," said Wayne Muller, who watched the speech from his home in Raleigh, N.C., and whose son, Cpl. Danny Muller, serves in Iraq's volatile Anbar province.

"We either have to get the troops in there to get the job done or bring them home," Muller said.

In other quarters, there was clear frustration.

Brad Rosen, a 24-year-old Harvard Law student who watched the speech among a crowd of about 100 at Cambridge Common bar, seized on Bush's assertion that 80 percent of the sectarian violence in Iraq is concentrated near Baghdad.

"Where was that information a year ago, when I would have said increase the troops?" Rosen asked. "But now it seems like a defense posture."

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